Friday, October 24, 2008

Not dead yet

Ok, ok, so I know I've been a bad blogger. It's just really easy to slip out of the habit and hard to get back in. But here I am. Some updates and information that might possibly be of interest, in no particular order:

1) I got my Visa refund this morning for those Zoom airlines tickets I had bought for our trip. It's awfully nice to see the Visa balance back at $0.00. I have had a longstanding issue with my credit card and overspending with it, and spent nearly ten years drowning in credit card debt, so last February when I inherited the money from my grandma one of the things I was determined to do was pay off my outstanding balance and keep it under control from now on. And I was very proud of the fact that I have paid off my Visa in full every month since. So it's been strangely upsetting for me to see that couple of thousand dollars sitting there on my statement, even though I knew it wasn't my "fault" and the refund was coming. I was actually really surprised by how much it bothered me, given how long I spent with a much higher balance than that being what seemed to be permanently on my statement. I think it bodes well, though, for my financial future if I can keep that "no outstanding balance" mindset!

2) I am officially down ten pounds since the autumn started. I am pleased with this progress, although of course I'd like to take off more (that would actually involve doing something about it, instead of just cutting back on the chips a little bit and taking the stairs once in awhile!). Serdic and I have agreed that starting November 1 (that's when his membership kicks in) we are going to go to the gym together at least twice a week, which I am really hopeful will be a good step for both of us. My major problem with getting to the gym is one of convenience, and it's really easy to talk myself out of it when there's so much else going on in my life, but the only time I worked out consistently was when I had a workout partner (in my case a personal trainer who I was paying a LOT of money!), so I think knowing I'm supposed to go with Serdic will help me get my butt in gear, and will actually give us some "us" time which sometimes seems in short supply, even though we live in the same apartment. This is something we both know we need to do, so I think together we can keep motivated.

3) Autumn also marks the beginning of the choir season, and things are in full swing with both choirs, which keeps me busy! As always I don't promote all of my concerts on here, but I do want to highlight the next one coming up, a Remembrance Day concert. It's a program of all Canadian composers and arrangers, and there is some absolutely gorgeous material on the program. Here are the details:



Lest we forget.